Once when Duke Ellington was in town, Sonny took his book of arrangements backstage to show him. They talked for over an hour,
Ellington gracious and regal in his black silk dressing gown. At one point the Duke pulled out his own arrangements. He saw that Ellington also used dissonance in his writing, only it never seemed dissonant. Sonny was thrilled to see his own ideas confirmed.
It seems incredibly nice of Duke Ellington to talk in depth with an unknown Sun Ra. People tiny bands now don’t even want to listen to other people’s demos online, much less go over their scores.